The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has suspended four officers attached to its Zone 7 headquarters in Abuja for allegedly stealing N43.1 million from a suspect arrested over a cash smuggling case.
The officers—Peter Ejike, a lawyer in charge of the Zone 7 legal section; Ekende Edwin, an inspector; Talabi Kayode, a sergeant; and Esther Okafor, an inspector—were accused of tampering with exhibits and engaging in corrupt practices.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, force spokesperson Muyiwa Adejobi disclosed that the officers had “unlawfully arrested” Andrew Ejah, an employee of FATFAD Cargo Nigeria Limited, who was transporting N74,950,000 on behalf of clients. The officers reportedly detained Ejah at Zone 7 headquarters and misrepresented the recovered amount as N31,790,000.
The officers allegedly demanded a share of the funds after being contacted by the owners of the money. Outraged by the incident, the money owners filed a petition with the force headquarters, prompting the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit to investigate the matter.
“During the process, the cash sum of N31,790,000 was recovered from the officers, who claimed it was the total money seized from Andrew Ejah during his arrest,” Adejobi said.
“However, forensic intelligence revealed that the officers conspired to steal part of the money, amounting to N43,160,000, and tasked one of them to move the cash out of the Federal Capital Territory for hiding.”
Adejobi further stated that the officers attempted to conceal their misconduct by destroying evidence, including claiming that the phone used to photograph the cash and suspect had been damaged and lost.
The officers face charges of serious misconduct, tampering with exhibits, abuse of office, corrupt practices, illegal duty, and acts unbecoming of police personnel.
Adejobi noted that the alleged misconduct has tarnished the reputation of the police, adding, “The movement of such an amount of money by the alleged cargo company could have been investigated and handled professionally by the police, but the officers were carried away by greed and therefore acted criminally and unprofessionally.”
He also clarified that Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector-general of police, is not shielding any cartel involved in smuggling suspicious new banknotes from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as alleged in some reports.
